- Location
- Elsewhere
Companion Chronicles [Jumpchain/Multicross SI] [Currently visiting: INTERMISSION]
- Thread starter Tempestuous
- Start date
- Location
- Massachusetts
Yessssss.
This was beautiful. The entire chapter should be called "The One Where Readers Cackle Incessantly"
Haven't heard this one before. I like it and it fits really well. I don't think I've seen many date night dialogues fully scripted but it worked really well!
One of us.
One of us.
Surprising twist! I really like that Cass might be going out on a limb here. There's moving-trailer fast then there's 'literally half your fantasy novels come to life" fast.
- Location
- Somewhere!
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Given how widely read she is, what are the odds Penny might recognize some of the people back in the warehouse?
dhasenan
always lowercase
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Depends on how much info she gets. Like if you entered a jumper's warehouse and saw a burly dude with a curly brown beard, would you recognize him? It's Thor. No, Perrin Aybara. Maybe Gimli in human form. Archchancellor Ridcully perhaps. Tommy Terror? Herakles?
Billy Cranston from Power Rangers. He's been working out, and he decided to let his facial hair grow out.
Oh hey, another dude with a curly brown beard! He's a bit thinner, though still muscled, and he says his name is René. Any guesses?
He's making bedroom eyes at you and wears a silver cross necklace. He's got a slightly dusty book in his hand.
Aramis (René d'Herblay) from the Three Musketeers
If they start talking about their exploits, well... She hasn't been primed with the idea of a jumpchain, so she's more likely to be dismissive of it.
BagFullOfLizards
Some bag, mostly lizards
- Location
- A bag
Awwww. So very awwwww. I really hope this works out!
Chloe Sullivan
Subdefective
- Location
- 1630 Revello Drive, Sunnydale CA
I mean I kinda read the whole "explaining my universe jumping" as also a proxy for "explaining that I'm trans" and well, yeah the metaphor works in this case.
- Location
- Colorado
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Oh gawd that was fast... oh my god... Cass is dating... This will either be amazing or awful... mmmmmm... My brain is telling me this will end bad but by heart is telling me something this cute and gay can only bring good vibes and happiness! !aaaaahagavagvavsvvsvdgvdvd
Nashk
Tyrant of Kyushu
- Location
- Kyoshi Island
Yeah this will probably end badly, although I hope not. Putting aside the inherent problem jumpers have with dating (especially when you are not the Jumpmaster), Cass has other attachments that could complicate things at the end of the jump, making her choice to stay or go complicated.
- Location
- Colorado
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Late reply BTW but I've been thinking about this hard and trying to figure it out and I think I have an awnser. Speaking as someone who binges from the beginning knowing that all the awkward uncomfortable stuff would evolve into really good queer representation that uses that awkwardness as emotional pathos to show how much some characters have grown, and the art evolves as the author does, I would say the earliest Jumping on point I can think of is the original Sister Arc. It's the most important bit and introduces us to an important cast member who's existence is amazing and not experiencing it will deprive you of some things later on.
I will also advise you read the below panels commentary as I did, seeing the author admit that the casual transphobia of the tone early on came from a place of fear over what Dan expected the audience to say to exploring gender non conforming situations with the characters to be so they preemptively went "haha isn't this weird and totally not cool for deeply personal reasons I don't get right now because I'm sheltered as fuck and currently only know the word transgender from erotica that perpetuates some inaccurate info." to not seem like a weirdo.
I will warn you there will be stuff that makes you cringe because the words are being used very wrong in the beginning, but I promise you it gets better. There's a light at the end of the tunnel. If you really need that assurance and don't mind learning some things early, read Squirrel Prophet and then jump back to where you left off. It isn't ideal as SP isn't a jumping on point and is far better when you already know the characters, but it's still some of the best damn emotional pathos in the whole comic thus far. Whenever you see someone misunderstanding about queer elements please try to think of it from an in universe perspective. That being that these are teens exploring themselves growing up an a sheltered as fuck small town in the early 2000s... They're not gonna know everything.
Hope this helps and remember, if it makes you uncomfortable, chances are it makes Dan uncomfortable in retrospect and they've either already addressed it or are likely to do so later considering their track record. Have fun!
E: if you like, I could also re read the parts leading up to Sister and write a "The story thus far" thing for you.
E2: Fuckit, I made a thread... Curse my ADHD hyper focusing on this on my day off... Let's Read El Goonish Shive
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Chapter 102: In the Clouds
Tempestuous
Words are wind, so I write.
- Location
- CA
AN: Beta-read by Carbohydratos, Did I?, Gaia, Linedoffice, Zephyrosis, and Mizu.
We'd left Ino's in the middle of the day onto a busy street, so we'd parted with a quick, innocent hug rather than anything more forward. Sure, it wasn't exactly the bad old days, but we were still in a town where people threw bricks through windows over gay rights. Fuck 'modern' society, seriously.
The hug still left me tingling from head to toe, and I was on cloud nine all week.
"What's gotten into you, Cass?" Lizzie asked during our shift change a couple days later.
"I went on a da-a-ate."
"Ooooh. What's he like?" She paused expectantly, then added, "Or she, I guess?"
"She is lovely, and that's all I'm going to say."
Lizzie squealed in excitement. "Oh, congratulations! Is it someone I know? What's her name? What does—"
"That is all I am going to say," I repeated firmly.
"But my gossip, Cass! Think of the gossip!"
"That's exactly why I don't want to answer your questions."
Whatever Lizzie had noticed clearly wasn't subtle; even the kids noticed the change.
"You're in a really good mood this week," Natalie told me. "Something good happen?"
"Nothing in particular," I lied, not wanting to gossip about my love-life with teenagers. "It's a beautiful day, isn't it?"
Ashley and Mike had the gall to send meaningful glances out the front windows at the dreary, overcast winter sky.
Less than a week later, I found the perfect opportunity for a second date, and a quick phone call confirmed it for just under two weeks after our first. I offered to drive, but my personal car was still the Home Sweet Home delivery van, so Penny insisted we take her car instead.
She parked her all-weather Jeep behind the bakery that Friday evening and climbed out to find me already waiting on the first step of the stairs leading up to the apartment.
"You're early," I said. "We don't have to leave for another forty minutes."
Penny blushed. "Well, you're already out here waiting for me."
"The alternative was wearing holes in the carpet. What are you hiding behind your back?"
Her blush deepened as she presented a bouquet of small white flowers. "I brought flowers."
I could feel my own face burning as I reached into the cardboard box at my feet to retrieve my own (purple) bouquet. "Yeah, so did I."
"Violets!" she exclaimed. "Did you do that on purpose?"
"You brought lilies!"
"No, I love it! I just didn't know if you paid attention to things like that!"
I looked down and toed the asphalt like the awkward person I was. "I, uh, tend to overthink things."
"I've noticed."
We traded flowers. The lilies were fresh-cut, and I had half a mind to head upstairs and vase them immediately.
"Want to put those in the car?" Penny asked with a glance at the box.
"Sure."
She unlocked the passenger door and held the lilies for me while I did so. Task complete, the pair of us stood next to the car for an awkward moment before a gust of wind kicked up, reminding me that it was still winter. I'd been able to more or less stick to my second-hand understanding of a 'lunch date' as a script last time, but I was floundering now.
"Um," I said. "Uh, would you like to come in?"
"Uh, y-yes, I'd love to!"
I let her pretend she'd been shivering rather than stuttering.
"Give up already?" Homura called as I opened the door.
"No," I called back. "She got here early."
By the time I helped Penny out of her incredibly poofy arctic-level jacket, Homura had come out of the office to greet her. "Hello, Penny," she said. "Weren't you planning to leave around 7?"
We mumbled an affirmative and blushed harder.
"You two," Homura muttered. "You've never dated. What's her excuse?"
"H—Akemi!"
"It was a rhetorical question."
I rolled my eyes, then turned my attention back to… back to my date. (Oh god!) "Uh, the living room's at the back… or the front… that's our office…"
"This is a really nice place," Penny said after my abbreviated tour on the way to the kitchen. "Feels just right for two people, I think."
"Thank you." I pulled out a chair for her at the table, then put the lilies and some water in one of the unpainted vases we had left over from years past. "Um, would you like something to drink? Coffee? Tea?"
"Do you have Lemon-Up?"
"In the fridge," Homura said—preempting my apology that no, we didn't have soda—and then ducked out of sight.
"Thanks," I called after her, then checked the fridge; sure enough, there was a single can of Lemon-Up sitting right at my eye level, frosted with condensation.
Are you telling me you used your soul to warp the very fabric of reality so we'd have the correct drink in the fridge? The answer appeared to be 'yes'.
"Ice?" I asked as I offered her the can.
"No need." Penny popped the cap and took a sip. "Uh, are you going to get a drink for yourself?"
"I'm fine."
"Okay… are you going to sit down?"
Oh. Right.
I sat.
"So," she said, "feel like telling me something unbelievable?"
I really didn't.
Penny sighed. "I guess not yet, huh?"
"Sorry."
"No, no, I respect that. Go at your own pace, right?"
"Yeah." I didn't meet her eyes.
After a moment, I remembered to add, "Thanks."
"Hey, I wouldn't be much of a friend if I turned every conversation into an interrogation, would I?"
"You're nothing if not a good friend."
"Flattery will get you nowhere, Cass."
"It's gotten me plenty of places."
I looked up at the sound of Penny choking on her soda to see her blushing fiercely. "What?"
"Phrasing!"
"What?"
"Phrasing!" she repeated. "You realize that is the perfect set-up for a dirty joke, right?"
"How? No, wait, I don't want to know."
Penny hid a laugh in a cough. "God, you're so shy at the oddest times," she told me. "Are you sure you're thirty?"
"Not in the slightest."
"Ha!"
Her laughter met the look on my face and died.
"Okay, nevermind," Penny said. "We can talk about something else."
"Thank you."
"No problem. Plenty of other things to talk about, right?"
"Right."
Neither of us found anything else to talk about in the time it took Penny to finish her soda. I took care of the empty can, then checked my watch.
"We probably won't be too early if we leave now," I said.
"Let's go, then," she replied. "Might as well be awkward somewhere more interesting."
"I resemble and resent that remark."
"God, we are such nerds," Penny muttered as she locked the car. "I don't think anyone else would consider this a good event for a date."
"But it is, right?"
"It's perfect! Do you have the books?"
I hefted the box. "I have mine. Want to add yours?"
"If you don't mind."
"Not at all."
Penny added her books to the box and helped me get it situated under one arm so she could hold my other hand. Luckily, the weather was cold enough that not many people were on the street, so no one saw my incredibly goofy smile.
This, I thought. This is why no one would ever believe you've sixty, you complete and utter buffoon.
There wasn't much of a crowd, but there wasn't much bookstore to keep them in, either, so it was still a tight squeeze. Showing up early had gotten us into a first-in-last-out trap; Penny and I found ourselves crammed into a corner by the newer arrivals, barely able to see the impromptu lectern they'd set up on a desk at one end of the shop. We had to strain to hear the author when he spoke, and were last in line for the book signing.
None of that mattered one bit.
Penny took the exit ramp into Strawfield, then turned straight into the gas station near the highway. She ignored the gas pumps, tire-fill station, and convenience store in favor of taking a parking spot at the edge of the lot, apparently for overflow from any of the above.
"Need something?" I asked.
"Not in particular. I just didn't want to say goodbye quite yet."
"Want this night to never end, huh?"
"God, if only." Penny let out a wistful sigh. "This was great."
"Not exactly a traditional date, was it?"
"No, but it was perfect for us. Wasn't it?"
"Yeah," I agreed. "I think so."
"I wouldn't have thought of it," she continued, leaning in like a conspirator. "Well, maybe I'd have thought about it, but I wouldn't have suggested it. I'd be too afraid of cementing someone's perception of me as the 'book girl'."
"But that's what I like about you!"
"Oh, stop!"
I laughed at the fact I could hear the blush in her voice.
"You know," Penny said, "I always thought that if I found someone, it'd be someone who liked me despite my obsession with novels. I thought it'd be tolerated. Then I met you, and… you remember when we met? You said you were in the bookstore just to be surrounded by books, and I thought, 'Oh my god, I need to be her friend!'"
"That was years ago," I said, leaning in myself. "You still remember that?"
"Of course I do I had a crush, like, immediately, but I thought, you know, get to know her first, right?"
"So you invited me to a book club you didn't have."
"Hey!" she whined, leaning closer still. "I also wanted a book club."
"And it was fun while it lasted." I leaned in closer myself.
"Yeah, it was. And it let me get to know you! And the more I got to know you, the more I wanted to know you better!" We were nearly nose to nose in the dark car. "I kept building up the courage to try and flirt only to chicken out—"
"And jumping straight to asking me on a date was easier?"
"Yes?! It's a lot easier to just flat out go 'Hey, let's date,' than it is to think of something smooth and flirty! So I decided to just go whole hog and give it my best shot—"
"And I turned into a total lesbian disaster the moment you raised the possibility—"
"—and it worked! Best risk I ever took. You're just so… so…"
Words failed her, so she tried an action instead—and I pulled away.
Maybe it would have been different if she hadn't inadvertently reminded me just how much she didn't know about me, but as it was, I felt like half the relationship was built on a lie. If this was going to go any farther, I needed to at least start peeling back the curtain on the madhouse that was my life.
"…Cass?" Penny asked, stricken.
I winced at the hurt in her voice. "Sorry, it's just…"
"No, it's my fault, two dates is kinda fast—"
"Hold on, I don't—I'm not rejecting you! I just want to… I need a minute, okay?"
"No problem," she lied. "Take your time."
Take my time. There weren't really any other options, were there?
I took a deep breath.
Then another.
How do I even broach the topic?
Half-formed sentences swirled through my head as I turned away from her silhouette to look out the passenger window. It was approaching midnight if it hadn't already passed; the sky was dark with clouds, and a light dusting of snow had begun to fall sometime in the last five minutes of our drive, adding a fresh layer to the snowdrifts piled up by the plows. The streetlamps glowed yellow, shining out of the gloom in lieu of the stars blotted out by the weather.
"You know in a lot of supernatural romance stories," I began, "there's just chapter after chapter of 'what if my love interest learns my dark secret?' and 'oh, no, he-or-she will leave me if they find out I'm whatever'? And it goes on for like eighty percent of the whole story, and there are all these close calls and stupid misunderstandings and half-baked lies and… just, you know, dramatic nonsense?"
"Uh… yeah?"
"Can we just, like, skip all that?"
Penny puzzled over the question for a long, nerve-wracking second as she tried to figure out how to respond to such a weird opener. When she finally spoke, it was a confused, "Uh, sure…?"
Right.
One final deep breath before the plunge.
"Remember when you asked how old I was?" I asked. "I said my birth certificate said I was thirty-two, and I was being literal. My birth certificate does say I was born thirty-two years ago."
"Okay."
"I don't count years, only decades"—because having months that aren't part of 'real' years makes things weird—"but the truth is I'm in my sixties."
Penny's reaction was, in hindsight, predictable: she turned on the overhead light and looked me over. Maybe she was trying to figure out if it was the slightest bit plausible. Maybe she was looking for a sign I was joking.
"I'm a very well-preserved sixty?" I added.
"BS."
Penny blushed at her own profanity, if initials could be called such, then doubled down on it. "BS! There is no way you look that good at sixty! It would take literal magic to pull that off!"
"It is what it is. I almost panicked and called off the first date because you're… what, twenty-five?"
"Twenty-six."
"Twenty-six. But I've done just as little growing up as growing old, so… I thought it would be okay? Or maybe I just didn't want to bail on the first person who'd ever asked me on a date—and sixty isn't that old, relatively speaking…" I trailed off as my excuses ran out of steam.
Penny stared at me for a moment.
"So," she said, "you said someone thought you were a vampire?"
"That's the first thing you think of?"
"Come on, you have to admit claiming you're sixty is pretty out there."
"I know it is," I grumbled. "I told you you wouldn't believe me."
"Well, it's unbelievable! How do you pass as a twenty-something at sixty?"
"You already said it."
"What?"
"Literal magic," I quoted.
She didn't know what to say to that.
"I mentioned supernatural romance for a reason," I continued. "The truth is, I can look as young or as old as I want because…"
Okay, one more deep breath.
"I'm a quasi-immortal magical shapeshifter."
There was an even longer pause.
"A shape-shifter."
"Yes."
"A 'quasi-immortal', magical, shapeshifter."
Penny tapped her fingers on the wheel as she processed that. The silence quickly grew uncomfortable, and I turned the light back off so I could go back to staring broodingly out the window rather than into my own reflection.
"Cass," she said at last, "I mean this in the nicest possible way, but… you know that's completely off the deep end, right?"
"I told you you wouldn't believe me," I repeated.
"That's a yes. I don't suppose you can prove any of that?"
"Easily, if you're sure you want me to."
That wasn't the answer she'd expected. "Really?" she asked. "You really think you can prove you're… um, that?"
"Yes, but I'm worried I'd just scare you more."
"Right."
I huffed and turned back to the Penny-shaped silhouette beside me. "I know what you're thinking," I said. "You think I'm crazy. Delusional. It's all in my head and I'm making excuses so I don't have to show off powers I don't have. That about right?"
"Uh… well, not to put too fine a point on it…"
"I don't blame you; I did say my life was crazy in a 'seek psychiatric help' kind of way. It's insane, right?"
"Well, yeah! You're telling me I just happened to run into an ageless shape-shifter with a nerdy love of fantasy novels? In this town?"
"Uh… yes?"
Penny huffed and thumped her head against the headrest. Even in the dead of night, it wasn't quiet enough for me to hear my watch tick, so the sound of the seconds crawling by was all in my head.
"I'm not sure which would be worse," she said at last. "If you're a delusional lunatic, or if you're telling the truth."
That did not bode well. "Would it really be that bad?"
Penny didn't respond for what felt like hours, and when she finally did, she still didn't actually answer my question. "Bleh," she mumbled. "I know this is a 'curiosity killed the cat' situation, but I still have to open the metaphorical box. Let's see your 'proof'."
"Okay. Uh, try not to freak out?"
"Sure."
I took a deep breath and shifted into the half-human form I'd started the jump with—minus the changes to my teeth because those weren't good for much besides scaring people—then turned the interior light back on because she couldn't see anything happening in the dark. In the sudden light my eyes, ears, whiskers, and tail were clearly visible.
Penny screamed.
"Ow!" I yelled, clapping my hands over my ears. "They're sensitive!"
"Oh my god! Oh my god!"
"Fuck, I'm sorry, that was the wrong way to reveal that—"
"Oh my god!"
I turned off the light and changed back to 'normal', and her 'Oh my god!'s gradually gave way to nervous giggling.
"Penny?"
"I'm here." She let out a panicked laugh. "Hahahah, I'm here. You're some kind of urban fantasy magical creature and I'm in the car with you."
"I'm not going to hurt you—"
"Great. Lovely. Probably not about to be eaten."
"I don't eat people! Why would even think that?"
"I don't know! I'm not scared of you—I mean, not just you. It's…"
Penny had to stop and collect herself before she continued, "It's not just you, it's… holy moly! Magic and shapeshifters and… what kind of story is this? Adventure? Horror?"
"Well, I was hoping it was a romance?" I suggested. "It's definitely not a horror story! Magic isn't—it's not eldritch secrets and gibbering madmen, or demonology and blood sacrifice. It's wondrous."
"It's still dangerous, though, isn't it?"
"Driving is dangerous—"
"Don't give me that!" she snapped. "You own swords and know how to use them! Sure, magic is 'wondrous' for you—you can handle it!"
"You could—"
"I don't want to know there are werewolves and vampires running around in the dark!" Penny continued over my objection. "Sure, you say you won't hurt me. What about all the other creepy crawlies that are going to come after me?"
I bit back a complaint on being lumped in with the 'creepy-crawlies'. "Nothing's going to come after you because knowing about magic isn't dangerous," I said instead. "Magic isn't dangerous—"
"If it wasn't dangerous, it wouldn't be a secret!"
I sighed. She was mostly right, and yet almost exactly wrong.
"The danger is people," I explained as gently as I could. "It's always people, magic or no magic. Hell, you're probably safer than you would be—"
"Because you're going to protect me?" Penny snapped. "I've read this kind of story before, Cass. Is this the part where you offer to keep me safe? Where you promise me you won't let anything happen to me?"
I hadn't been planning to, but I'd had no idea she'd react like this in the first place. "Would it help?"
"I don't want to need protection! I don't want to be in danger in the first place!"
"Magic isn't the danger!"
"That's what you say, but…" Penny stopped and took several ragged breaths. "I'm sorry, but I just… I can't… I can't deal with this, Cass, I just can't. I'm a small town girl—not the smallest town, but… I don't want life to be dark and mysterious! I want the world to make sense! Fantasy is fun because it's fantasy—I don't want to live it!"
Then that was a deal-breaker. At this point, calling my life 'fantasy' was an understatement.
"I guess that's that, then," I said. "For what it's worth, I'm sorry."
Silence.
Penny let out a long, explosive sigh. "Darn it," she cursed. "I knew I was getting 'Raine' vibes from you and your darn deflections."
"Rain?" I repeated, unable to make sense of the word in context.
"Raine? Katalepsis?" I could hear the muffled 'bap' of her palm striking her forehead. "Oh, for the love of—now I find something you haven't read?"
"I guess?"
"Figures."
The silence was suffocating.
"I can walk home," I offered.
"Alone?" Penny asked, alarmed. "At this time of—oh. You are what goes bump in the night, huh?"
"You can stop implying I eat people at any time."
"Sorry."
"Thank you. Uh…" I forced a cough. "Why did you decide to stop at an empty gas station in the dead of night, anyway?"
"It was convenient?"
She couldn't see my unamused look, but my silence communicated my disbelief well enough.
"Well, uh, the thing is—ugh, this is so embarrassing," Penny whined. "I figured if things went well, it'd be a nice, private place to, you know, make out for a bit?"
"Oh." That kiss had been premeditated!
It was just as well we could barely see each other because I'd turned very red. At least the awkwardness finally managed to displace some of Penny's terror.
"God," she whispered. "I can't believe I dated a kitsune."
"I'm not Japanese enough to be a kitsune."
"You ordered a tofu stir fry."
"I have empirical evidence that my fondness for tofu is unrelated to my foxiness."
"Phrasing?"
"I intended that one."
Penny huffed.
"Sorry," she said. "I don't mean… look, I like you, Cass, I really do. These past couple weeks… I've never felt that way with anyone before. I don't want to say goodbye. I want…" She swallowed. "I wish this could work out. Somehow."
Yeah, so did I.
"It can't, can it?" she added.
"I think that depends on you."
Penny cringed.
"I don't want to live an 'interesting' life," she repeated, staring out the windshield at the empty streets. "I don't want to be part of… of whatever's down the rabbit hole. I want fantasy to stay fantasy."
That was very much a 'no, it can't'.
I closed my eyes and leaned back against the seat. "I guess that's where we differ. When I was your age, I would have jumped headfirst into even the scariest sort of magic if it meant an escape from reality."
"Your reality is magical, though?"
"Yeah, well…" I shrugged. "I grew up normal. I hated it."
"I can't understand that."
"We're not as alike as I thought, I guess."
"Guess not."
A few seconds passed in contemplative quiet.
"I think in some way," I mused before the silence could settle in further, "I only enjoy the life I'm living now as much as I do because even when I hide all the magical stuff, it's still there. It's like… like a comfort blanket against the mundanity of the world."
"Yeah," Penny said. "It's always there, isn't it? It's a comfort blanket to you, but for me, it'd be more like… I don't know. Something lurking under my bed, maybe. That's why I can't ignore it—you know, pretend we're just a couple of normal people. Uh, it'd be wrong to ask that of you, for one thing, but even if I did, it would still be there. To say nothing of the future—what would we look like in fifty years? Would I be an old woman while you still look like you're in your twenties? Or would you work some crazy magic, and everyone I knew would wonder why I'm not aging? What would I tell my family?"
Fifty years? I wouldn't be here in ten.
It couldn't have worked. Were you going to stay here for her? Did you expect her to leave with you?
"I'm sorry," I said again.
"So am I."
Eventually, Penny found the presence of mind to start the car again and pull out onto the empty street. Half a mile passed in silence.
"I'm sorry I screamed at you," she said.
"I forgive you."
"Thanks."
I just nodded.
"And…" Penny continued, "you didn't have to tell me the truth, and you did anyway. That's not a small thing, is it?"
"You deserved to know if we were going to be… you know."
She took that for an affirmative. "I figured. I'll keep your secret, Cass. I shouldn't have to say it, but I want you to know."
I shrugged. "No one would believe you even if you told them."
"Probably not, but you still took a risk telling me, right?"
"Well…"
"Yeah, I thought so."
I took advantage of Penny's focus on driving to surreptitiously wipe moisture from my eyes. The 'risk' I took was that you'd react badly—and you did.
"And, uh…" she mumbled, "for what it's worth, I'm glad you told me. I did deserve to know." She was trying to make me feel better, I was pretty sure, but it wasn't helping.
Strawfield wasn't a large town, so it wasn't long until we pulled up in front of Home Sweet Home.
"Here we are," Penny said.
"Yeah." I started to ask a question, thought better of it, then asked it anyway. "Will I see you again?"
A pause.
"I don't know," she admitted. "Part of me wants to run back to California and pretend this was all a bad dream. Leave it all in the rear-view mirror."
"I'm sorry."
"Stop apologizing," Penny said. "It's not your fault."
"Isn't it?"
"It's nobody's fault. That's what makes this such a heartbreak." She sighed. "God. This is… there's definitely a joke to be made about weHaul lesbians right now. For god's sake, we've been on two dates in as many weeks. We haven't even kissed. I shouldn't be this torn up about this."
I just nodded.
"But I thought this was it. I've never fallen for anyone this hard. It felt… darn it, it felt magical. Too good to be true."
"Was it?"
"Seems so. Or maybe I was more attracted to danger than I realized."
I let that comment pass rather than restart an argument I couldn't win.
Penny sighed and pressed the button to unlock the car doors—a clear signal it was time to go. "You should get going," she said just in case I didn't get the hint. "Early morning tomorrow, right?"
Not really. "Yeah."
A brief intrusive thought suggested that I 'accidentally' forget that Penny's books were still in the box so she'd have to stop by to get them back; I ignored it and put her copies on the passenger seat before shutting the door. No sooner had it clicked shut than Penny began rolling down the window.
"Cass?" she called.
"Yeah?"
"Look up Katalepsis—spelled like it sounds. I think you'd like it."
"I will," I said. "Promise."
"Goodnight."
"Goodnight."
She rolled up the window and pulled away, leaving me standing on the curb long after her taillights had disappeared from sight.
Chapter 102: In the Clouds
We'd left Ino's in the middle of the day onto a busy street, so we'd parted with a quick, innocent hug rather than anything more forward. Sure, it wasn't exactly the bad old days, but we were still in a town where people threw bricks through windows over gay rights. Fuck 'modern' society, seriously.
The hug still left me tingling from head to toe, and I was on cloud nine all week.
"What's gotten into you, Cass?" Lizzie asked during our shift change a couple days later.
"I went on a da-a-ate."
"Ooooh. What's he like?" She paused expectantly, then added, "Or she, I guess?"
"She is lovely, and that's all I'm going to say."
Lizzie squealed in excitement. "Oh, congratulations! Is it someone I know? What's her name? What does—"
"That is all I am going to say," I repeated firmly.
"But my gossip, Cass! Think of the gossip!"
"That's exactly why I don't want to answer your questions."
Whatever Lizzie had noticed clearly wasn't subtle; even the kids noticed the change.
"You're in a really good mood this week," Natalie told me. "Something good happen?"
"Nothing in particular," I lied, not wanting to gossip about my love-life with teenagers. "It's a beautiful day, isn't it?"
Ashley and Mike had the gall to send meaningful glances out the front windows at the dreary, overcast winter sky.
———X==X==X———
Less than a week later, I found the perfect opportunity for a second date, and a quick phone call confirmed it for just under two weeks after our first. I offered to drive, but my personal car was still the Home Sweet Home delivery van, so Penny insisted we take her car instead.
She parked her all-weather Jeep behind the bakery that Friday evening and climbed out to find me already waiting on the first step of the stairs leading up to the apartment.
"You're early," I said. "We don't have to leave for another forty minutes."
Penny blushed. "Well, you're already out here waiting for me."
"The alternative was wearing holes in the carpet. What are you hiding behind your back?"
Her blush deepened as she presented a bouquet of small white flowers. "I brought flowers."
I could feel my own face burning as I reached into the cardboard box at my feet to retrieve my own (purple) bouquet. "Yeah, so did I."
"Violets!" she exclaimed. "Did you do that on purpose?"
"You brought lilies!"
"No, I love it! I just didn't know if you paid attention to things like that!"
I looked down and toed the asphalt like the awkward person I was. "I, uh, tend to overthink things."
"I've noticed."
We traded flowers. The lilies were fresh-cut, and I had half a mind to head upstairs and vase them immediately.
"Want to put those in the car?" Penny asked with a glance at the box.
"Sure."
She unlocked the passenger door and held the lilies for me while I did so. Task complete, the pair of us stood next to the car for an awkward moment before a gust of wind kicked up, reminding me that it was still winter. I'd been able to more or less stick to my second-hand understanding of a 'lunch date' as a script last time, but I was floundering now.
"Um," I said. "Uh, would you like to come in?"
"Uh, y-yes, I'd love to!"
I let her pretend she'd been shivering rather than stuttering.
"Give up already?" Homura called as I opened the door.
"No," I called back. "She got here early."
By the time I helped Penny out of her incredibly poofy arctic-level jacket, Homura had come out of the office to greet her. "Hello, Penny," she said. "Weren't you planning to leave around 7?"
We mumbled an affirmative and blushed harder.
"You two," Homura muttered. "You've never dated. What's her excuse?"
"H—Akemi!"
"It was a rhetorical question."
I rolled my eyes, then turned my attention back to… back to my date. (Oh god!) "Uh, the living room's at the back… or the front… that's our office…"
"This is a really nice place," Penny said after my abbreviated tour on the way to the kitchen. "Feels just right for two people, I think."
"Thank you." I pulled out a chair for her at the table, then put the lilies and some water in one of the unpainted vases we had left over from years past. "Um, would you like something to drink? Coffee? Tea?"
"Do you have Lemon-Up?"
"In the fridge," Homura said—preempting my apology that no, we didn't have soda—and then ducked out of sight.
"Thanks," I called after her, then checked the fridge; sure enough, there was a single can of Lemon-Up sitting right at my eye level, frosted with condensation.
Are you telling me you used your soul to warp the very fabric of reality so we'd have the correct drink in the fridge? The answer appeared to be 'yes'.
"Ice?" I asked as I offered her the can.
"No need." Penny popped the cap and took a sip. "Uh, are you going to get a drink for yourself?"
"I'm fine."
"Okay… are you going to sit down?"
Oh. Right.
I sat.
"So," she said, "feel like telling me something unbelievable?"
I really didn't.
Penny sighed. "I guess not yet, huh?"
"Sorry."
"No, no, I respect that. Go at your own pace, right?"
"Yeah." I didn't meet her eyes.
After a moment, I remembered to add, "Thanks."
"Hey, I wouldn't be much of a friend if I turned every conversation into an interrogation, would I?"
"You're nothing if not a good friend."
"Flattery will get you nowhere, Cass."
"It's gotten me plenty of places."
I looked up at the sound of Penny choking on her soda to see her blushing fiercely. "What?"
"Phrasing!"
"What?"
"Phrasing!" she repeated. "You realize that is the perfect set-up for a dirty joke, right?"
"How? No, wait, I don't want to know."
Penny hid a laugh in a cough. "God, you're so shy at the oddest times," she told me. "Are you sure you're thirty?"
"Not in the slightest."
"Ha!"
Her laughter met the look on my face and died.
"Okay, nevermind," Penny said. "We can talk about something else."
"Thank you."
"No problem. Plenty of other things to talk about, right?"
"Right."
Neither of us found anything else to talk about in the time it took Penny to finish her soda. I took care of the empty can, then checked my watch.
"We probably won't be too early if we leave now," I said.
"Let's go, then," she replied. "Might as well be awkward somewhere more interesting."
"I resemble and resent that remark."
———X==X==X———
"God, we are such nerds," Penny muttered as she locked the car. "I don't think anyone else would consider this a good event for a date."
"But it is, right?"
"It's perfect! Do you have the books?"
I hefted the box. "I have mine. Want to add yours?"
"If you don't mind."
"Not at all."
Penny added her books to the box and helped me get it situated under one arm so she could hold my other hand. Luckily, the weather was cold enough that not many people were on the street, so no one saw my incredibly goofy smile.
This, I thought. This is why no one would ever believe you've sixty, you complete and utter buffoon.
There wasn't much of a crowd, but there wasn't much bookstore to keep them in, either, so it was still a tight squeeze. Showing up early had gotten us into a first-in-last-out trap; Penny and I found ourselves crammed into a corner by the newer arrivals, barely able to see the impromptu lectern they'd set up on a desk at one end of the shop. We had to strain to hear the author when he spoke, and were last in line for the book signing.
None of that mattered one bit.
———X==X==X———
Penny took the exit ramp into Strawfield, then turned straight into the gas station near the highway. She ignored the gas pumps, tire-fill station, and convenience store in favor of taking a parking spot at the edge of the lot, apparently for overflow from any of the above.
"Need something?" I asked.
"Not in particular. I just didn't want to say goodbye quite yet."
"Want this night to never end, huh?"
"God, if only." Penny let out a wistful sigh. "This was great."
"Not exactly a traditional date, was it?"
"No, but it was perfect for us. Wasn't it?"
"Yeah," I agreed. "I think so."
"I wouldn't have thought of it," she continued, leaning in like a conspirator. "Well, maybe I'd have thought about it, but I wouldn't have suggested it. I'd be too afraid of cementing someone's perception of me as the 'book girl'."
"But that's what I like about you!"
"Oh, stop!"
I laughed at the fact I could hear the blush in her voice.
"You know," Penny said, "I always thought that if I found someone, it'd be someone who liked me despite my obsession with novels. I thought it'd be tolerated. Then I met you, and… you remember when we met? You said you were in the bookstore just to be surrounded by books, and I thought, 'Oh my god, I need to be her friend!'"
"That was years ago," I said, leaning in myself. "You still remember that?"
"Of course I do I had a crush, like, immediately, but I thought, you know, get to know her first, right?"
"So you invited me to a book club you didn't have."
"Hey!" she whined, leaning closer still. "I also wanted a book club."
"And it was fun while it lasted." I leaned in closer myself.
"Yeah, it was. And it let me get to know you! And the more I got to know you, the more I wanted to know you better!" We were nearly nose to nose in the dark car. "I kept building up the courage to try and flirt only to chicken out—"
"And jumping straight to asking me on a date was easier?"
"Yes?! It's a lot easier to just flat out go 'Hey, let's date,' than it is to think of something smooth and flirty! So I decided to just go whole hog and give it my best shot—"
"And I turned into a total lesbian disaster the moment you raised the possibility—"
"—and it worked! Best risk I ever took. You're just so… so…"
Words failed her, so she tried an action instead—and I pulled away.
Maybe it would have been different if she hadn't inadvertently reminded me just how much she didn't know about me, but as it was, I felt like half the relationship was built on a lie. If this was going to go any farther, I needed to at least start peeling back the curtain on the madhouse that was my life.
"…Cass?" Penny asked, stricken.
I winced at the hurt in her voice. "Sorry, it's just…"
"No, it's my fault, two dates is kinda fast—"
"Hold on, I don't—I'm not rejecting you! I just want to… I need a minute, okay?"
"No problem," she lied. "Take your time."
Take my time. There weren't really any other options, were there?
I took a deep breath.
Then another.
How do I even broach the topic?
Half-formed sentences swirled through my head as I turned away from her silhouette to look out the passenger window. It was approaching midnight if it hadn't already passed; the sky was dark with clouds, and a light dusting of snow had begun to fall sometime in the last five minutes of our drive, adding a fresh layer to the snowdrifts piled up by the plows. The streetlamps glowed yellow, shining out of the gloom in lieu of the stars blotted out by the weather.
"You know in a lot of supernatural romance stories," I began, "there's just chapter after chapter of 'what if my love interest learns my dark secret?' and 'oh, no, he-or-she will leave me if they find out I'm whatever'? And it goes on for like eighty percent of the whole story, and there are all these close calls and stupid misunderstandings and half-baked lies and… just, you know, dramatic nonsense?"
"Uh… yeah?"
"Can we just, like, skip all that?"
Penny puzzled over the question for a long, nerve-wracking second as she tried to figure out how to respond to such a weird opener. When she finally spoke, it was a confused, "Uh, sure…?"
Right.
One final deep breath before the plunge.
"Remember when you asked how old I was?" I asked. "I said my birth certificate said I was thirty-two, and I was being literal. My birth certificate does say I was born thirty-two years ago."
"Okay."
"I don't count years, only decades"—because having months that aren't part of 'real' years makes things weird—"but the truth is I'm in my sixties."
Penny's reaction was, in hindsight, predictable: she turned on the overhead light and looked me over. Maybe she was trying to figure out if it was the slightest bit plausible. Maybe she was looking for a sign I was joking.
"I'm a very well-preserved sixty?" I added.
"BS."
Penny blushed at her own profanity, if initials could be called such, then doubled down on it. "BS! There is no way you look that good at sixty! It would take literal magic to pull that off!"
"It is what it is. I almost panicked and called off the first date because you're… what, twenty-five?"
"Twenty-six."
"Twenty-six. But I've done just as little growing up as growing old, so… I thought it would be okay? Or maybe I just didn't want to bail on the first person who'd ever asked me on a date—and sixty isn't that old, relatively speaking…" I trailed off as my excuses ran out of steam.
Penny stared at me for a moment.
"So," she said, "you said someone thought you were a vampire?"
"That's the first thing you think of?"
"Come on, you have to admit claiming you're sixty is pretty out there."
"I know it is," I grumbled. "I told you you wouldn't believe me."
"Well, it's unbelievable! How do you pass as a twenty-something at sixty?"
"You already said it."
"What?"
"Literal magic," I quoted.
She didn't know what to say to that.
"I mentioned supernatural romance for a reason," I continued. "The truth is, I can look as young or as old as I want because…"
Okay, one more deep breath.
"I'm a quasi-immortal magical shapeshifter."
There was an even longer pause.
"A shape-shifter."
"Yes."
"A 'quasi-immortal', magical, shapeshifter."
Penny tapped her fingers on the wheel as she processed that. The silence quickly grew uncomfortable, and I turned the light back off so I could go back to staring broodingly out the window rather than into my own reflection.
"Cass," she said at last, "I mean this in the nicest possible way, but… you know that's completely off the deep end, right?"
"I told you you wouldn't believe me," I repeated.
"That's a yes. I don't suppose you can prove any of that?"
"Easily, if you're sure you want me to."
That wasn't the answer she'd expected. "Really?" she asked. "You really think you can prove you're… um, that?"
"Yes, but I'm worried I'd just scare you more."
"Right."
I huffed and turned back to the Penny-shaped silhouette beside me. "I know what you're thinking," I said. "You think I'm crazy. Delusional. It's all in my head and I'm making excuses so I don't have to show off powers I don't have. That about right?"
"Uh… well, not to put too fine a point on it…"
"I don't blame you; I did say my life was crazy in a 'seek psychiatric help' kind of way. It's insane, right?"
"Well, yeah! You're telling me I just happened to run into an ageless shape-shifter with a nerdy love of fantasy novels? In this town?"
"Uh… yes?"
Penny huffed and thumped her head against the headrest. Even in the dead of night, it wasn't quiet enough for me to hear my watch tick, so the sound of the seconds crawling by was all in my head.
"I'm not sure which would be worse," she said at last. "If you're a delusional lunatic, or if you're telling the truth."
That did not bode well. "Would it really be that bad?"
Penny didn't respond for what felt like hours, and when she finally did, she still didn't actually answer my question. "Bleh," she mumbled. "I know this is a 'curiosity killed the cat' situation, but I still have to open the metaphorical box. Let's see your 'proof'."
"Okay. Uh, try not to freak out?"
"Sure."
I took a deep breath and shifted into the half-human form I'd started the jump with—minus the changes to my teeth because those weren't good for much besides scaring people—then turned the interior light back on because she couldn't see anything happening in the dark. In the sudden light my eyes, ears, whiskers, and tail were clearly visible.
Penny screamed.
"Ow!" I yelled, clapping my hands over my ears. "They're sensitive!"
"Oh my god! Oh my god!"
"Fuck, I'm sorry, that was the wrong way to reveal that—"
"Oh my god!"
I turned off the light and changed back to 'normal', and her 'Oh my god!'s gradually gave way to nervous giggling.
"Penny?"
"I'm here." She let out a panicked laugh. "Hahahah, I'm here. You're some kind of urban fantasy magical creature and I'm in the car with you."
"I'm not going to hurt you—"
"Great. Lovely. Probably not about to be eaten."
"I don't eat people! Why would even think that?"
"I don't know! I'm not scared of you—I mean, not just you. It's…"
Penny had to stop and collect herself before she continued, "It's not just you, it's… holy moly! Magic and shapeshifters and… what kind of story is this? Adventure? Horror?"
"Well, I was hoping it was a romance?" I suggested. "It's definitely not a horror story! Magic isn't—it's not eldritch secrets and gibbering madmen, or demonology and blood sacrifice. It's wondrous."
"It's still dangerous, though, isn't it?"
"Driving is dangerous—"
"Don't give me that!" she snapped. "You own swords and know how to use them! Sure, magic is 'wondrous' for you—you can handle it!"
"You could—"
"I don't want to know there are werewolves and vampires running around in the dark!" Penny continued over my objection. "Sure, you say you won't hurt me. What about all the other creepy crawlies that are going to come after me?"
I bit back a complaint on being lumped in with the 'creepy-crawlies'. "Nothing's going to come after you because knowing about magic isn't dangerous," I said instead. "Magic isn't dangerous—"
"If it wasn't dangerous, it wouldn't be a secret!"
I sighed. She was mostly right, and yet almost exactly wrong.
"The danger is people," I explained as gently as I could. "It's always people, magic or no magic. Hell, you're probably safer than you would be—"
"Because you're going to protect me?" Penny snapped. "I've read this kind of story before, Cass. Is this the part where you offer to keep me safe? Where you promise me you won't let anything happen to me?"
I hadn't been planning to, but I'd had no idea she'd react like this in the first place. "Would it help?"
"I don't want to need protection! I don't want to be in danger in the first place!"
"Magic isn't the danger!"
"That's what you say, but…" Penny stopped and took several ragged breaths. "I'm sorry, but I just… I can't… I can't deal with this, Cass, I just can't. I'm a small town girl—not the smallest town, but… I don't want life to be dark and mysterious! I want the world to make sense! Fantasy is fun because it's fantasy—I don't want to live it!"
Then that was a deal-breaker. At this point, calling my life 'fantasy' was an understatement.
"I guess that's that, then," I said. "For what it's worth, I'm sorry."
Silence.
Penny let out a long, explosive sigh. "Darn it," she cursed. "I knew I was getting 'Raine' vibes from you and your darn deflections."
"Rain?" I repeated, unable to make sense of the word in context.
"Raine? Katalepsis?" I could hear the muffled 'bap' of her palm striking her forehead. "Oh, for the love of—now I find something you haven't read?"
"I guess?"
"Figures."
The silence was suffocating.
"I can walk home," I offered.
"Alone?" Penny asked, alarmed. "At this time of—oh. You are what goes bump in the night, huh?"
"You can stop implying I eat people at any time."
"Sorry."
"Thank you. Uh…" I forced a cough. "Why did you decide to stop at an empty gas station in the dead of night, anyway?"
"It was convenient?"
She couldn't see my unamused look, but my silence communicated my disbelief well enough.
"Well, uh, the thing is—ugh, this is so embarrassing," Penny whined. "I figured if things went well, it'd be a nice, private place to, you know, make out for a bit?"
"Oh." That kiss had been premeditated!
It was just as well we could barely see each other because I'd turned very red. At least the awkwardness finally managed to displace some of Penny's terror.
"God," she whispered. "I can't believe I dated a kitsune."
"I'm not Japanese enough to be a kitsune."
"You ordered a tofu stir fry."
"I have empirical evidence that my fondness for tofu is unrelated to my foxiness."
"Phrasing?"
"I intended that one."
Penny huffed.
"Sorry," she said. "I don't mean… look, I like you, Cass, I really do. These past couple weeks… I've never felt that way with anyone before. I don't want to say goodbye. I want…" She swallowed. "I wish this could work out. Somehow."
Yeah, so did I.
"It can't, can it?" she added.
"I think that depends on you."
Penny cringed.
"I don't want to live an 'interesting' life," she repeated, staring out the windshield at the empty streets. "I don't want to be part of… of whatever's down the rabbit hole. I want fantasy to stay fantasy."
That was very much a 'no, it can't'.
I closed my eyes and leaned back against the seat. "I guess that's where we differ. When I was your age, I would have jumped headfirst into even the scariest sort of magic if it meant an escape from reality."
"Your reality is magical, though?"
"Yeah, well…" I shrugged. "I grew up normal. I hated it."
"I can't understand that."
"We're not as alike as I thought, I guess."
"Guess not."
A few seconds passed in contemplative quiet.
"I think in some way," I mused before the silence could settle in further, "I only enjoy the life I'm living now as much as I do because even when I hide all the magical stuff, it's still there. It's like… like a comfort blanket against the mundanity of the world."
"Yeah," Penny said. "It's always there, isn't it? It's a comfort blanket to you, but for me, it'd be more like… I don't know. Something lurking under my bed, maybe. That's why I can't ignore it—you know, pretend we're just a couple of normal people. Uh, it'd be wrong to ask that of you, for one thing, but even if I did, it would still be there. To say nothing of the future—what would we look like in fifty years? Would I be an old woman while you still look like you're in your twenties? Or would you work some crazy magic, and everyone I knew would wonder why I'm not aging? What would I tell my family?"
Fifty years? I wouldn't be here in ten.
It couldn't have worked. Were you going to stay here for her? Did you expect her to leave with you?
"I'm sorry," I said again.
"So am I."
Eventually, Penny found the presence of mind to start the car again and pull out onto the empty street. Half a mile passed in silence.
"I'm sorry I screamed at you," she said.
"I forgive you."
"Thanks."
I just nodded.
"And…" Penny continued, "you didn't have to tell me the truth, and you did anyway. That's not a small thing, is it?"
"You deserved to know if we were going to be… you know."
She took that for an affirmative. "I figured. I'll keep your secret, Cass. I shouldn't have to say it, but I want you to know."
I shrugged. "No one would believe you even if you told them."
"Probably not, but you still took a risk telling me, right?"
"Well…"
"Yeah, I thought so."
I took advantage of Penny's focus on driving to surreptitiously wipe moisture from my eyes. The 'risk' I took was that you'd react badly—and you did.
"And, uh…" she mumbled, "for what it's worth, I'm glad you told me. I did deserve to know." She was trying to make me feel better, I was pretty sure, but it wasn't helping.
Strawfield wasn't a large town, so it wasn't long until we pulled up in front of Home Sweet Home.
"Here we are," Penny said.
"Yeah." I started to ask a question, thought better of it, then asked it anyway. "Will I see you again?"
A pause.
"I don't know," she admitted. "Part of me wants to run back to California and pretend this was all a bad dream. Leave it all in the rear-view mirror."
"I'm sorry."
"Stop apologizing," Penny said. "It's not your fault."
"Isn't it?"
"It's nobody's fault. That's what makes this such a heartbreak." She sighed. "God. This is… there's definitely a joke to be made about weHaul lesbians right now. For god's sake, we've been on two dates in as many weeks. We haven't even kissed. I shouldn't be this torn up about this."
I just nodded.
"But I thought this was it. I've never fallen for anyone this hard. It felt… darn it, it felt magical. Too good to be true."
"Was it?"
"Seems so. Or maybe I was more attracted to danger than I realized."
I let that comment pass rather than restart an argument I couldn't win.
Penny sighed and pressed the button to unlock the car doors—a clear signal it was time to go. "You should get going," she said just in case I didn't get the hint. "Early morning tomorrow, right?"
Not really. "Yeah."
A brief intrusive thought suggested that I 'accidentally' forget that Penny's books were still in the box so she'd have to stop by to get them back; I ignored it and put her copies on the passenger seat before shutting the door. No sooner had it clicked shut than Penny began rolling down the window.
"Cass?" she called.
"Yeah?"
"Look up Katalepsis—spelled like it sounds. I think you'd like it."
"I will," I said. "Promise."
"Goodnight."
"Goodnight."
She rolled up the window and pulled away, leaving me standing on the curb long after her taillights had disappeared from sight.
———X==X==X———
I don't get this; can someone explain?
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Aw, that's so sad. Probably the most realistic way for that to go, but still sad.
- Location
- Somewhere!
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Oooh, this is a deep cut and very cool. Although Cass is hardly Raine! She's more like... Twil or Heather, really?
- Location
- England
Probably they are just the flowers that the person being given likes.
HOWEVER, 'lily' in Japanese is 'yuri' which is also used to refer to lesbian stories and relationships.
- Location
- Colorado
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Oof... Heartbreaking but I liked it, skipping all the angst and just being honest was good, and I wish Penny hadn't reacted like she did but... Life is life... Ironically while this does put off minor "Telling my crushI'm trans" vibes, at the same time I feel like Penny's reaction doesn't have a counterpart in real life, which I suppose is good, as many of the parallels I can think of just don't have reasons as good as Penny's here. A creat chapter as always, I wish it invoked as much squeeing as the last chapter caused me but sometimes a story makes you sad, and that just shows its good.
And now Penny will move the Mopervile to escape from the magic.
And she did not even mention the 'I am part alien and not from this dimension' stuff.
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- Location
- Somewhere!
- Pronouns
- She/Her
yeah the ironic part is that the magic and power Cass is warning her about is entirely distinct from the native threat. I hope nothing dramatically ironic happens like her running into the actual vampires?
Spectrum
Tell me a secret~
- Location
- Behind you~
I, uh, don't think that was the best reveal choice. I mean she's freaking out about it but surely there was a more approachable form or revelation to use?
Well, at least they found out now, before the U-Haul.
Chloe Sullivan
Subdefective
- Location
- 1630 Revello Drive, Sunnydale CA
This chapter hurts me in the best way.
Could we not call people idiots for having squishy human emotions?
Could we not call people idiots for having squishy human emotions?
DonLyn
Verified Soulless Bureaucrat
It's not the emotions I object to, it's
1. knowingly choosing ignorance over knowledge
2. preferring the mundane/mediocre to the wondrous
3. immediately assuming that the unknown/other is monstrous
I apologize if my previous comment sounded as if I thought that people with feelings are idiots.
...By the way, I also think that Cass should have turned into a fox instead of her hybrid shape. Penny might not have reacted that badly if her first thought post-change had been "Cute!" instead of "Uncanny Valley!".